A variety of human diseases currently cannot be treated in a satisfactory manner with standard pharmaceuticals, proposing the use of primary human cells as an alternative or additional option for the treatment of various diseases. Those cellular therapy approaches usually require significant handling and processing of cellular products to separate wanted from unwanted functions, for example depletion of cells in an unwanted and potentially life threatening graft versus host reaction or enrichment of cells involved in wanted graft versus leukemia/tumor effects.
Methods known in the art require a massive infrastructure in hospitals to fulfill regulatory and safety requirements, including good manufacturing procedures compatible clean rooms and personnel to maintain rooms, devices, production, quality control and quality assurance procedures. Cellular products are usually processed utilizing a combination of different devices and disposables with manual transfer of samples between those systems.
The current invention integrates various cell processing steps into a single device and disposable, controlled in a fully automated process, eliminating the requirements for manual cell transfer, in-process controls, related risks to the cellular product, and risk reduction measures and thus provides a device and method for manufacturing of cellular therapy products that are ready for direct use. The cellular product manufactured using the system of the present invention will typically be ready for direct transfer into the patient.
The present invention is generally related to processing of biological materials. More specifically, the present invention provides systems, devices, and methods for the processing of biological materials to culture and/or separate components of a biological sample, and to further separate components of the sample by separation techniques, including application of magnetic separation.
Various techniques are known for separating components of a sample or biological material that make use of separation techniques. Such techniques include but are not limited to panning, magnetic separation, centrifugation, filtration, immunoaffinity separation, gravitation separation, density gradient separation, and elutriation.
Immunoaffinity methods may include selective labeling of certain components of a sample (e.g., antibody labeling) and separation of labeled and unlabeled components. Magnetic separation methods typically include passing the sample through a separation column.
Magnetic separation is a procedure for selectively retaining magnetic materials in a chamber or column disposed in a magnetic field. A target substance, including biological materials, may be magnetically labeled by attachment to a magnetic particle by means of a specific binding partner, which is conjugated to the particle. A suspension of the labeled target substance is then applied to the chamber. The target substance is retained in the chamber in the presence of a magnetic field. The retained target substance can then be eluted by changing the strength of, or by eliminating, the magnetic field.
A matrix of material of suitable magnetic susceptibility may be placed in the chamber, such that when a magnetic field is applied to the chamber a high magnetic field gradient is locally induced close to the surface of the matrix. This permits the retention of weakly magnetized particles and the approach is referred to as high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS).
The use of HGMS in biological separations requires that the conditions provide a high yield with substantial purity. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide high gradient magnetic separators, devices and methods that are relatively easy to construct and use, yet provide maximized and uniform magnetic field gradients and flow characteristics, during use. It would be most advantageous if such magnetic separators, devices and methods could be used to perform a variety of cell sorting or assay procedures with the selection of the appropriate specific binding member by which the target substance will be magnetically labeled.
In many instances, separation methodologies must be performed under conditions that ensure non-contamination of the sample or maintain sterility. For example, many current clinical cell separation systems need to be operated in clean rooms of high quality in order to maintain sterility of samples. Often ensuring non-contamination is cumbersome, expensive and requires separate facilities and personnel, as well as complex procedures requiring extensive efforts to maintain reproducibility and sterility. Additionally, numerous processing and handling steps (e.g., washing, volume reduction, etc.) must be performed separate from the separation systems with subsequent introduction of the processed samples as well as attachment of fluids and reagents to the systems, further complicating sterility compliance. As such, improved methods and systems are needed to ensure non-contamination of samples and/or reducing the complexity and expense of sample processing.